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The absence of such detections is yet another unsettling input to the Fermi paradox.
by quotemstr 2y ago
The absence of such detections is yet another unsettling input to the Fermi paradox.
- marshray 2y agoOn the bright side, maybe it is evidence against Dark Forest theory?
- shepardrtc 2y agoThe Dark Forest theory is fear-mongering anyway. If there's a civilization out there that wants to conquer others, it just has to send a probe to every star out there. Sufficiently advanced automation would allow this to happen without much work on their part. In theory, WE could do that right now, though very clumsily and with many failures. 3D printing, AI, harvesting materials off asteroids. Not outside of possibility, just hard at our level of tech. Now imagine the boogeyman of the Dark Forest theory - they would obviously have a greater level of tech if they're so dangerous, and it would be much easier.
- SoftTalker 2y agoWhy unsettling?
- quotemstr 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
- kevin_thibedeau 2y agoYou don't need FTL travel to expand into our light cone at this point in the evolution of the universe.
- pfdietz 2y agoThat makes absence of FTL detections comforting, not unsettling.
- Vecr 2y agoDoes it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_and_loud_aliens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_and_loud_aliens Probably about neutral.
- 7thaccount 2y agoI saw something recently that one explanation is that we're in a cosmic void. Sure the milky way is big, but we're still exposed to a fraction of the worlds that a non-void area would be. Of course there are 80,000 other explanations that are also fascinating. A wonderful subject.
- IsTom 2y agoFor me what makes most sense is that we're relatively early in cosmic history. You need enough heavy (and diverse!) elements to be able to support life/civilization and you won't get that from early stars.
- jajko 2y agoMost probably yes, I mean we only have few generation of stars actually producing heavy elements enough to see what we see ie on Earth, not just some hydrogen & helium ball. Also most probably there isnt any way to travel back in time, since we would most probably be eliminated at the seed to not compete for resources or avoid aggression. For all wonderful things mankind did and does, we are still deeply flawed and highly emotional primitive beings, and we may kill ourselves due to this.
- JoeAltmaier 2y agoThe real tragedy, we're taking so many others with us.
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y agoOn cosmic scales of time, theres no reason to assume spacefaring humans would remotely resemble us in any recognizable way. Imo especially their minds, they’d almost certainly have augmented and modified their thinking drastically.
- wongarsu 2y agoAnd earth has been around for 1/3rd of the current age of the universe. As far as things go it's pretty old. Add to that that we probably aren't as "normal" as we initially believed. A solar system with small rocky planets on the inside and big gas giants on the outside seems to be the exception and was very important for earth's development. Then there's the above mentioned "void" we are in, and probably other things we don't realize yet. There's a really good case that we are among the earliest spacefaring civilizations
- mr_mitm 2y agoOr warp drives are simply impossible or at least ultra unfeasible. Nothing unsettling about that thought.
- quotemstr 2y agoSuperluminal travel being infeasible probably limits our species to our own solar system.
- evilduck 2y agoYou don't need anything near light speed for single human lifetimes to navigate beyond the solar system but it will be a one way trip mostly devoid of communication. We can seed the galaxy but can't watch it bloom.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> but it will be a one way trip mostly devoid of communication Which describes our species' travels until only a few thousand years ago.
- evilduck 2y agoAbsolutely. We want FTL in stories because it allows us to tell a sequential narrative across vast galactic distances. We want FTL in science and mathematics because humans as a species don't like hard limits to what is allowed. We want FTL in our life because few people are willing to cut all ties to their family, friends, and society to wander off into the void without hope of ever returning or being heard from again. But... some people are okay with that finality of their decision to push limits and that's how islands over the horizon get discovered and settled.
- Loughla 2y agoIt is unsettling though. Because it places a limit on what has so far been essentially limitless success as a species. Without travel beyond our solar system, we won't last forever. And that's kind of sad for me.
- downrightmike 2y agoIf you're spending at least a quadrillion dollars to build a warp drive, you better make sure it doesn't fail or fails safe. We may never see a failure, even if we make it depending on where it is.
- pfdietz 2y agoUnsettling? It's highly comforting. What would be horribly unsettling is detection of ET intelligence, as it would imply either interstellar travel is impossibly difficult or that the Great Filter is in our future.
- hoseja 2y agoOr the ETs know about signal hygiene. Hell, careless warp drive signatures are even a plot point in Three Body Problem.
- thegrim33 2y agoWe have no gravitational wave detectors with the sensitivity at the needed frequencies to be able to detect such events.
- mystified5016 2y agoWe haven't actually looked for them yet. The frequency of the theoretical gravitational waves is also beyond what our current detectors can reasonably pick up. IIRC, a warp bubble a few km in diameter moving at <0.3c produces gravitational waves at a frequency just beyond what we can currently detect. Superluminal warp bubbles haven't been simulated, apparently that's beyond the computational resources available to this team. Don't expect a real detection any time soon. We'll need another generation or two of development on our detectors and to actually simulate a more realistic (small and superluminal) warp field. Personally, I think we'll find something once we build detectors good enough. I'm a firm believer that purely based on statistics there has to be someone else out there. I also choose to believe that superluminal travel is possible because the universe would be a much less interesting place otherwise.
- more_corn 2y agoWarp drives are probably a pretty terrible way to move around since they require exotic things like negative energy that probably don’t exist, and quantities of power that would destroy the destination solar system. If anyone out there is crossing interstellar distances they’re probably doing it a different way. Have you tried wormholes? Those are pretty promising. Let’s simulate one of those collapsing.